


beauty in the water, angel on the beach

by ihaveacleverfandomurl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, MerMay, Pining Lance (Voltron), lance is just a lil lovestruck baby, like little mermaid but turned up with actual flirting that doesn't work on poor oblivious shiro, mermaid lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 10:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18809005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ihaveacleverfandomurl/pseuds/ihaveacleverfandomurl
Summary: "I just… mermaids don’t exist! But you’re −”Lance unmistakably snickers, a hiss of a snort as he smirks, and Shiro can’t help but bark a laugh of his own at the sound, letting himself slump back into the boat, rest an arm over his eyes.Okay, well, mermaids are real. And he’s… he’s got a literal lapful of a merman right now − Lance has crawled his way into the boat completely, to balance his sharp chin on Shiro’s chest and peer into his face. He’s got a smattering of freckles across his human skin, little blue tinged gills fluttering at his neck, tiny sapphire scales dotting his shoulders and cheeks.





	beauty in the water, angel on the beach

**Author's Note:**

> it’s mermayyyy oh shit,, i'm weak for mermaids & especially for mermaid lance  
> I like how all my shance (tWO fics what a record) has been “make lance a really pretty mystical being” but this time lance gets to be the one hopelessly head over heels (at first ;))  
> -  
> catch that cute lil title coming from [Mermaid by Train](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ_VGbZd8No)  
> i don't even know if i like this but we'll see yEET i just miss writing for fun and not my goddamn classes

The waves are quiet, lapping against the side of the boat. The slightest breeze plays with Shiro’s hair, the warmth of the sun above soaking into his skin. He’s lying there on the deck of his tiny boat − eyes closed, basking, _alone_ with the sea and the silence. Just the way he likes it. He’s given himself sunburns falling asleep out here, but he can’t help it. This is how he clears his mind.

The first bump to the boat is excused as probably just a rogue wave. Shiro breathes deeply, keeps his eyes closed. The second furrows his eyebrows, and as a drop of water hits his face at the third, he finally opens his eyes.

He barely muffles a surprised scream at the face hanging over him, doesn’t even take in details, just a pair of blue eyes in a bronzed face and dark, wet hair. Shiro almost catapults them both into the water as he tries to scramble back in space he doesn’t have.

“ _What the −_ ”

He stops and can only mouth silently in disbelief when he realizes that this stranger that’s apparently pulled himself up and over the side of Shiro’s boat in the middle of the ocean doesn’t have a pair of _legs_ dangling into the water, but rather…a _fucking tail._

The merman blinks at him and tilts his head, like _Shiro’s_ the weird one here. Like he isn’t just… sitting there, his lower body covered with _azure blue scales_ glittering in the sun.

“What are – how – _oh my god._ ”

A slight smile twitches the creature’s mouth, impish, and Shiro catches his breath. The merman loops more of his tail into the boat and pulls himself closer, looking ready to…well, _eat him_ or something, with the intent gaze he seems to be pinning Shiro with. Shiro braces himself for claws digging into his throat, squeezing his eyes shut again as the creature reaches for him, instead he feels – fingers carding softly through his white tuft of hair?

Shiro opens his eyes to the merman looking utterly captivated, apparently just with…him in general. The fingers drift from his hair to the raised red scar that’s slashed across his nose, skim his jaw, down his shoulder to trail his prosthetic arm. The merman lifts the hand of it in his own, to press a palm-to-palm measure against his longer, slimmer claws that taper to dark blue fingertips, fascinated.

Shiro watches all of this with adrenaline fading in his throat, and the beginnings of ugly shame rising instead as he sits up. It figures that when a fantastical creature somehow shows up, it thinks him far stranger than it, what with the disability and all. Who needs fellow humans to look at him like an oddity when even a merman recognizes it?

The merman has…gotten to his legs in his inspection, apparently, has fumbled off a sneaker and sock and lifted a now bare foot to examine closely, engrossed. Shiro swallows. “Who are you?”

The merman looks up only for his gaze to quickly drop dejectedly. He doesn’t reply, just sets the foot down to make a markedly sad-sounding, wordless trill. A pair of yellow and teal ear-fins tuck against his head.

“What’s…”

A hand hovers at the merman’s throat, and his eyes dart back up to Shiro’s meaningfully.

“What, you can’t talk?”

Another sad look, shake of the head.

Shiro exhales sharply. Well, Disney should have prepared him for this, but… “Okay, uh. Don’t suppose you know any…ASL?” It isn’t like his knowledge is more than bare-bones, but…

Another shake.

“You can’t, um, write, can you?”

The merman’s lips part as his eyes widen eagerly, and Shiro tries not to flinch at the gleam of pointed teeth. A predator of a creature, but one behaving more like an excited kid, crowding closer to Shiro yet again and…chirping happily.

Evidently, he _can_ write. How, Shiro doesn’t really know, but − “Ah…” God, does Shiro have… paper? He used to have a notebook stowed in the box at the stern of the boat, to sketch and write bad poetry in while he floated – Well, there it was, but probably full of embarrassing things he never planned to let see the light of day. “Sorry, give me a minute.” He rips out pages, locates a nub of a pencil and awkwardly presents both to the curiously watching merman, who eyeballs the box he’s stuffed the reject pages back into, but takes the offering.

 _Lance_ , he writes, grins up at Shiro.

Shiro huffs a breath and presses at his temples. Oh god. He’s met an otherworldly creature and he’s _having a conversation with it._ “I’m…I’m Shiro. Jesus, this is _so weird_.”

Lance visibly droops, hunching over his paper. Takes a long time to write a hesitant: _Weird?_

“No, not you! I just… mermaids don’t exist! But you’re −”

Lance unmistakably _snickers_ , a hiss of a snort as he smirks, and Shiro can’t help but bark a laugh of his own at the sound, letting himself slump back into the boat, rest an arm over his eyes.

Okay, well, mermaids are real. And he’s… he’s got a literal lapful of a merman right now − Lance has crawled his way into the boat completely, to balance his sharp chin on Shiro’s chest and peer into his face. He’s got a smattering of freckles across his human skin, little blue tinged gills fluttering at his neck, tiny sapphire scales dotting his shoulders and cheeks.

“What are you even doing here? Shouldn’t mermaids keep themselves away from humans?” Shiro asks the almost permanently starry-eyed merman, unable to wipe the disbelieving smile from his own face.

Lance ducks away, hides his face against Shiro’s now very wet shirt. (Well, just about everything in the boat is wet now.) He nods.

“So why’d you just…hop into my boat, buddy?”

Lance pushes himself up and narrows his eyes, pouting as he reaches for his notebook. God, he really is a kid.

 _Buddy_ , he writes, then crosses it out and pointedly shows it to Shiro.

“Don’t call you buddy?” Shiro chuckles. “Why not?”

The pout gets worse, but this time Lance just crosses his arms and refuses to write, looking away from him. Shiro laughs again.

“How old are you, kid?”

Lance’s tail thumps against the side of the boat – it’s so long that fins still trail into the water, and with the flick of one, Shiro’s splashed with a surprising amount of water, and sputters.

 _Twenty two human summers_ , is written jaggedly on the pad shoved into his face as Shiro spits water and wipes at his eyes.

“All right, all right. I get it, Lance.” A claw taps on his chest, and Shiro blinks. “Me? I’m twenty seven.”

Lance blows a raspberry and abruptly dives over the side of the boat, suddenly disappearing into the depths of the water, and Shiro freezes, hangs over the suddenly deep and empty blue-green. He wouldn’t go that quickly, would he?

He’s face-to-face with the merman again in an instant, barely breaching the water beyond his chin. Lance still looks a little sullen, and sticks out his tongue – also, startlingly, a blue-tinted color.

“I’m sorry, okay? Will you talk to me?” Shiro holds out the paper again, and Lance stares at it for a long moment before slowly heaving himself back up the side. He tucks his elbows over the edge this time, only just barely hanging into the boat, and takes the pencil.

 _Not a guppy_ , he says, side-eyes Shiro, and continues. _Seen you before. Got tired of hiding._

“You’ve…you watched me?” _Oh no_ , he’s definitely hummed really off tune bad pop songs to himself while out here. Probably done other embarrassing things. Fuck.

_Shouldn’t talk to humans. Haven’t talked to them before._

“So…why?”

Lance tints pink and slides backward a little in the water, scribbles without looking. _Liked you._

Shiro reads it, blinks, tries to smile around a dry throat. “Ah, well. Humans are probably pretty weird to you, huh? I was interesting to watch, I guess?”

Lance’s ear fins droop again as he nods, takes a minute to pause and then write, _Come back?_

“Will I? I mean, yeah. This is…a pretty dumb hobby, but I like it. I’m not gonna stop now.”

Lance nods again and flashes the quickest, tiniest smile at him as he releases the paper and pencil and drops back, tail flipping skyward as he dives backwards in a perfect arc. Shiro watches the glimmering iridescent shift of the multi-faceted blue scales breathlessly, the long, graceful, translucent fin spread wide as it enters the waves. Then, gone.

He can only breathe again when he fumbles to find the phone packed away in a watertight bag somewhere, to begin frantically typing _Keith I think I might be going insane but −_

**Author's Note:**

> when ur crush is a daddy and he thinks you’re immature,, poor lance  
> -  
> comments are my lifeblood ( ˘ ³˘)♥  
> -  
> I'm gonna link my tumblrs like always but tbh i only ever use instagram for social media these days  
> [my creative tumblr](http://kayizcray.tumblr.com) | [my personal tumblr](http://ihaveacleverfandomurl.tumblr.com/) | ([& my cosplay instagram](https://www.instagram.com/kayizcray/) with some vld cosplay on it)  
> 


End file.
